Blackmailing pair who demanded £4,000 'reward' from top film actress for naked pictures they found on stolen laptop are jailed

Two men who blackmailed a leading actress over nude photographs found on a stolen laptop were jailed for a total of three years and eight months today.

Serial criminals Lee Fevrier, 35, and brother Vernon, 34, demanded a £4,000 ‘reward’ from the celebrity’s publicist for the safe return of the intimate pictures.

Before deciding to blackmail the unnamed actress, the pair had attempted to sell the 50 paparazzi photos to national newspapers and gossip magazines, including the Sun.

Jailed: The blackmailers were sentenced at Southwark Crow Court today to two years and 20 months respectively for their crimes

The snaps had been found on a laptop which was stolen during a burglary of a solicitors firm’s London offices in June, before falling into the hands of the Fevrier brothers, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Before sentencing Judge Alastair McCreath called blackmail a ‘very ugly crime’ but added that the Fevrier brothers’ attempt was ‘pretty inept’.

‘You aren’t, frankly, any good at blackmail. ‘

Vernon led the bungled blackmail attempt while pretending to be operating as a middle man for the person who had the stolen laptop.

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He arranged for a memory stick containing the photos to be exchanged for £4,000 cash at a McDonald’s in Marble Arch, central London, on July 12.

He at first asked for a ‘reward’ before claiming he just wanted to some cash for ‘a few drinks’ and told the publicist he did not want to blackmail her.

But he then turned down an offer of £500
for the pictures, and demanding more money or the photos would be
published on Facebook or Twitter.

Blackmail: The nude images of the actress had been found on a stolen laptop

Prosecutor Peter Clements said: ‘They
were motivated by greed. Both saw an opportunity of making a relatively
large sum of money, and both targeted an individual vulnerable to an
offence of this type.’

Vernon
Fevrier and his older brother Lee were tracked by police as they headed
to the McDonald’s branch, still in phone contact with the publicist.

But
the pair argued about the best way to carry out the exchange, and they
were eventually picked up by police when they decided to abandon the
meeting.

The court heard the star, who cannot be named, did not know about the attempt at blackmail until afterwards.

Sentencing
Vernon for two years and Lee for 20 months Judge Alastair McCreath
said: ‘Blackmail is a very ugly crime, because at the end of it are
threats to people, to sometimes harm them, or sometimes as in this case
to sometimes expose them.

‘This was not by any means a trivial offence.’

‘She was to find out, inevitably, that her privacy had been intruded upon’.

The
court was told Vernon has a long criminal record, including sentences
for a total of 16 years in jail for robbery, burglary, possession of
cocaine with intent to supply.

He
has been convicted of 35 separate offences, and was out on licence at
the time of the attempt at blackmail, Mr Clements said.

His
brother Lee has a string of convictions for 15 offences, although his
last conviction was in 1999 when he was jailed for three years for
robbery.

Vernon Fevrier, of Hendon, north London, was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to blackmail.

Lee Fevrier, of Homerton, east London, admitted an identical charge and was jailed for 20 months.